Preparing the Vineyard

Since vines are expecting to grow and produce for many years, you could well imagine that the proper preparation of the vineyard will pay great dividends. In commercial vineyards, large mechanical equipment is brought in to dig the soil as much as six feet down, in order to break up the soil as much as possible. You, of course, probably can't afford to do this.

I am told that in the U.S., vines are typically spaced in rows 6 feet apart, with each row being 10 feet from the rows on either side. In Europe, on the other hand, the vines are "crowded" more closely together (they don't look all that crowded to me). That is, in the U.S., each vine is given as much room as is needed to maximize its production. In Europe, on the other hand, what decrease is found in the production per vine is made up for by the increased number of vines per acre. The Europeans believe that their method creates superior wine. There is a certain logic to it, since vines which are under stress (crowding causes stress) do produce superior wines.

The Site

The site being planted is in Richardson, Texas, which is the first suburb immediately north of Dallas, Texas. Although Richardson was founded as a farming community in 18??, its claim to fame is the "Telecom Corridor", a business area devoted to hgih tech electronic communications.

The site is on an oversized lot, which measures nearly an acre. On the south and east sides, there are shallow creeks. The east creek has running water in it year-round, but the south creek dries up into stagnant ponds in the heat of summer. The depth of the water is normally up to 6 inches, and the width of the running water is perhaps 3 feet. However, since the creeks are part of the city's storm sewer system, during periods of heavy rain, the creek may grow to be as much as 30 feet across and several feet deep. Erosion on this part of the creek is not a problem (it is farther downstream); rather, the concern is with flooding.

Along both creeks are trees such as hackberry, elm(?), willow, and black walnut. Since the neighborhood is nearly 40 years old, many of the trees are beginning to die of disease, age, and water damage. The dead trees, while too close to the vines, do serve as habitat for a variety of birds.

About half of the property is in the 100-year flood plain. I decided to run the vines in two rows along the crest of the property, about the limit of the 100-year flood plain. The two rows will make an ersatz back fence for the property. For a number of reasons (such as in-ground pipes for the sprinkler system), the holes were not dug in a perfectly orderly fashion, and, at the far south end, three rows were begun. However, since this is a home vineyard rather than a commercial venture which must have perfect rows to accomodate machinery, I decided not to worry about it.

The two rows (the third row is very short) are only about 5 feet part, with each vine being about 6 feet from its neighbor. I felt that this spacing would not be overly damaging, since there are only two rows for most of the length, which means that the vines will be able to grow away from each other.

The Soil

The soil in the backyard is a heavy clay soil, as is the case in much of the Dallas area. The soil is hard as a rock when dry and tenaciously sticky when very wet. In fact, it's difficult to work with the soil at all unless it's rained in the last 2 or 3 days. The soil is alkaline (provide the measurement), and it needs a great deal of amendment. While it is true that vines produce better wines when grown in bad soils, I don't think this is what is meant by a bad soil - in fact, vines grow better in rocky soils than soils full of organic matter.

Photos of the Site

The two rows of holes for the vines, facing south.

The two rows of the holes for the vines, still facing south, with a clearer view of the trees in the south creek. Note that the holes are along the lip of the high ground, just about the 100-year flood plain.

Preparing the Hole

There are thirty holes. Each hole is about 3 feet wide and about 2 feet deep. Near the driveway, the diggers encountered a lot of left over concrete, which had been dumped off the end of the driveway to build up the embarkment. The white blob above and the the right of the shovel is a chunk of concrete the diggers didn't want to dig out.

After the hole was dug, I put about .75 cubic feet of river rock into the bottom of the whole for drainage. In the center, the rock is 4 or 5 inches deep.

After the rock, I added about 1 cubic foot of peat moss. Not only does the heavy clay soil need to be amended to make it lighter, the peat moss will add acid.

After the peat moss, I mixed the dirt dug out of the hole with a lot of "organic matter" and 8 quarts of vermiculite. By "organic matter", I mean the stuff raked up by the diggers as they cleared some of the creekside area on the property. This is not high quality compost - which would be bad for the vines anyway - rather, it is leaves, twigs, roots, and probably even some poison ivy vines. Hence the name of the vineyard, since poison ivy grows in abundance in the creek beds.

I added several barrows full of the amended soil, mounding the soil in anticipation of the eventual compacting of the organic matter and the peat moss beneath. It takes about 30 minutes to mix the material and fill each hole. No, I didn't dig the holes; that was done by a crew from a local landscaping company - I highly recommend this if you have thirty holes!

Send comments to:
mccalpin@mccalpin.com